Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Since the mid 1990s I've created map-stories like the one at the left, showing neighborhoods featured in media stories following incidents of violence. I've shown locations of non-school tutor/mentor programs, if any, that operate in the map-area, and I've listed some of the businesses, faith groups, universities, hospitals, etc. that also are located within the map area.

All of these groups should be meeting regularly to innovate ways to fill the area with a wide range of k-12 tutoring, mentoring and learning programs. Obviously that's not happening.

The goal has been to dramatically increase the flow of dollars, talent, volunteers, technology, ideas, etc. directly to all of the different youth serving organizations throughout the Chicago region, so each could constantly improve its impact on youth and volunteers. My efforts have been too little to have the impact needed, but I've continued this effort using what talent and resources I've been able to mobilize.

That's the point of this and many of my articles. We need to keep trying until the problem is resolved.

Below I show another graphic, this time describing a planning process, that I feel needs to be taking place in many different organizations and businesses throughout the Chicago region, and in other cities..

Looking at the maps at the right, you can see the goal of filling high poverty neighborhoods with needed programs that help kids move safely through school and into jobs and adult lives. If this system were in place there would be fewer young people turning to gangs, and the violence that goes along with this.

Step 7, at the far left, focuses on "building public" will, which is the involvement of public and private sector members in the planning process, and action steps, that would grow the number of high quality youth supports needed in every poverty neighborhood.

Part of this process involves bringing together a team of people with a mix of talents who will lead this process. Keeping that team together, and growing, is one outcome of successfully building public support.

Major challenge: Attracting volunteers into neighborhoods with high violence.

When I led tutoring programs at the Montgomery Ward complex on Chicago's near North area, across the street from the Cabrini Green Housing Complex, many potential volunteers would ask me "Is it safe to come to the program site?" I would respond, "Wards has nearly 3000 employees here every day. Yes. It is safe."

Between 1975 and 1992 that program grew from 100 volunteers participating weekly to over 500, who came from companies throughout the Chicago region.

However, that location was near the Chicago LOOP and surrounded by neighborhoods where thousands of potential volunteers lived and worked. It was easy to get to on a weekly basis.

This map is one we created in 2008 showing high poverty areas in Chicagoland, known non-school tutor and/or mentor programs, access routes into the city to the downtown LOOP work area, and universities with locations in different parts of the region.

Attracting volunteers into neighborhoods on Chicago's far West side and middle and far South side, where media stories report innocent people being killed as they walked the streets, requires a much more difficult set of conversations and solutions.

We need to be having that conversation.

It needs to be taking place in many organizations, located as far West as Elmhurst, as far North as Lake Forest, and as far South as LaGrange.

This graphic illustrates how groups of people with something in common (technology, marketing, consulting, medial careers, etc.) or who are part of the same organization (alumni group, business, hospital, etc.) need to be looking at information showing where and why tutor/mentor programs are needed, and web sites of existing programs, then innovating ways to support the growth of mentor-rich programs in high violence, high poverty, neighborhoods throughout the Chicago region.

These groups need to be using maps to focus their attention, and resources, on the different poverty areas of the city and suburbs. Browse 2008-2016 articles at the MappingforJustice blog to find map resources and ideas.I don't know the answer to this challenge. I do know that unless more people are asking the question and looking for solutions, we'll never have enough mentor-rich programs reaching k-12 youth in all of the neighborhoods getting media attention for the wrong reasons.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

School has started, or will be starting in the next two weeks. Volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring organizations in Chicago and other cities are now in the process of recruiting, screening, training and matching volunteers with youth. There's much you can do to help this process.

When I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, my goal was to build a library of existing programs, and create more frequent media stories, so more people would be motivated to volunteer time, talent and dollars to help existing programs grow, or help new programs start where more are needed.

The information in the library was intended to help existing programs see what others were doing, so they could borrow ideas to help improve their own program. However, it's also intended to be used by people in business, faith groups, media, politics, high schools, colleges, etc. who should be much more proactive in helping good programs grow in more places.

One way I stay informed about tutoring/mentoring in Chicago and around the country is by looking at what Chicago area tutoring and/or mentoring programs are putting on Twitter and/or Facebook, as well as what they are putting on their web sites.

I maintain two lists on Facebook

Connecting with other Programs on Facebook.

The easiest way to learn what other programs are doing is to look at their Facebook pages. The way I've done this is to look at web sites of programs I maintain on this list. I find their Facebook link, and then visit their page and click on the "like" button. I've created a list of programs on Facebook, so this would be easier for others to do.

Then, on a regular basis, daily or weekly, I just click on the Pages Feed button, on the left side of my home page, and scroll down through the listings to see what's being posted.

Several Chicago youth organizations are very consistent, and creative, in sharing photo stories on a regular basis. Spend time looking at these and add the ideas to your own communications strategy.

Then, go a step further. Create graphics that feature some of these programs and share them in social media, to build greater visibility for the entire sector of youth tutor/mentor programs in your neighborhood, or in the entire city.

You can also follow what Chicago and national youth serving organizations are sharing on Twitter, by clicking on my TMPrograms list, then scrolling through what's being posted. Unfortunately, only a few Chicago programs are active on Twitter. My list includes organizations from around the country, so don't limit where you look to find ideas for your own organization.

Note: If you're a volunteer, board member, parent or student in a tutor/mentor program, and active on Twitter, you could be posting messages regularly, pointing to your organization's web site or Facebook page.

Looking at program web sites(here's my list) provides the most information about individual youth serving organizations in the Chicago region. I organize my list by sections of the city and suburbs to make it easier for parents, volunteers, donors, etc. to find programs near where they live or work. Many of the web sites are full of information. Some don't have as much.

My vision has been that a program's web site should serve as its grant proposal, and that donors and volunteers should be educated to seek out programs in different parts of the city and suburbs, in response to negative news or other reminders. I created this SHOPPER'S GUIDE PDF to show a list of things that I feel should be included on a web site, to fully inform site visitors. Very few organizations actually include most of this information on their web sites.

Note. If you've web design, communications, marking and/or PR skills, you could volunteer time to help programs update their web sites and tell their stories more effectively.

One opportunity that most programs miss, is using blogs to share their vision, successes and challenges with each other and with the public. If you browse articles I've posted since 2005, I'm pretty open about what I'm trying to influence. If you look at this AllStars Project blog, you'll see a clear statement of some of the challenges non-school youth development programs face. I would like to be able expand this list of blogs, which I've been building for the past 10 years, where leaders of tutoring and mentoring programs are sharing their own ideas in a similar way. Send me your blog address and I'll add it to the list.

As we start this school year, and move toward the year-end holidays and into 2017, we need more people to fill the RED circle in this graphic, using their personal visibility, their social media, their blogs and company/faith group web sites, to tell the story of youth serving programs in different parts of the city, with the goal of attracting needed talent, dollars, ideas and technology support to every program, on an on-going basis.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Another senseless act of violence in Chicago took the life of a young woman, this time the cousin of NBA basketball star Dwyane Wade. Over night Wade Tweeted a call to end the violence, using the hashtag #EnoughisEnough.

I've been using this phrase for nearly 10 years, to show steps of involvement that anyone can take. Here's an article written just two weeks ago, that is titled "Stop the Violence. Where are the Leaders?"

I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago in 1993 with the goal of helping non-school tutoring, mentoring and learning programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago, as an alternative to the negative influences available to youth in high poverty neighborhoods.

I've reached out to athletes to take a role in "building great teams" to support youth, with graphics like the one below.

This graphic is included in this 2014 article titled "Build Great Youth Teams in Every Neighborhood - Role of Intermediaries". It's one of several articles showing roles athletes and coaches can take, which you can find in this set of articles,

There's a lot of information here. It's not something you can master in just one session. Yet, athletes like Wade, our Olympians, pro baseball and football players, all know that to be great you spend lots and lots of time practicing and building your skills.

That's why they should focus on motivating fans to spend their own time, talent and dollars, learning ways to be strategic and consistently involved, and motivating them to stay involved for many years.

I started sharing these strategies 23 years ago. Had anyone accepted this leadership role at that time, maybe things would be different now in 2016 Chicago.

#EnoughisEnough - share this with athletes, leaders and celebrities. I'd be happy to serve as a coach.It's not too late to start changing the future.

Over the past couple of days I came across an article with the Periodic Table, re-mixed, to show 90 issues that challenge our well-being, locally and globally.

The article says this chart was created by "A 17-year-old Indian school girl who came up with an imaginative way to remember all the elements on the periodic table for her science class. She decided to recreate the periodic table to highlight 90 global issues, using the acronym of each element to highlight a particular problem."

Read the article and look at the issues she includes.

I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago in 1993 to try to pull people together to help build and sustain mentor-rich non school programs helping kids in poverty areas move through school and into jobs and careers. I started writing this blog in 2005 and many articles, like this, share maps and graphics, that focus on how we get from "here to there".

I encourage others who talk about problems to spend some time with a pen and paper and try to scratch out their own master plan, then share it on-line as I do.

I created the graphic at the right in the 1990s, to recognize that there are many different issues that need to be solved, in Chicago and in other places around the world. Each needs a network of people with various talents and civic reach who are dedicating their time, talent and dollars to solving that problem.

The Periodic Table created by our Indian school girl just emphasizes how many different issues there are which require the involvement of many people, over many years and in many places.

My goal is to find just a few people who focus on the same strategies that I focus on. With the right mix of talent, and deep commitment, we can change the world....or at least have a small impact.

While I'm in Chicago, the third largest city in the US, I've found it really difficult to connect with other people who think the same as I do, and who are willing to commit their time, talent and dollars to working with me on the strategies I've developed. Nor have I found many using maps and graphics on their own web sites, for their own organization, who focus on the same problem.

The article about the Periodic Table was shared by Sheri Edwards, an educator from Washington state, via a Connected Learning #clmooc Facebook page. I've written about this group before, showing how I've been connecting and building relationships since 2013 with educators from the US and the world. I've been part of a Webheads in Action group of ESL educators from around the world since 2004.

Both of these demonstrate how people from different places can connect and build relationships and expand what they know, if someone keeps the group alive from year to year and if individuals are willing to devote their own personal time visiting, reading and connecting on an on-going basis

I emphasize this because while there may only be a few people in Chicago who might be interested in the ideas and strategies I share, in big cities around the world, there may be many others who are struggling to find attention and support for the same ideas. I included this map from an Economist.com article, in this article on the MappingforJustice blog.

Every one of my articles, Tweets and Facebook posts is an invitation seeking some who will respond. This graphic illustrates a goal of finding leaders from different sectors. This talent map illustrates the same idea, with more detail.

I created this 4-part strategy map and this article to illustrate a problem solving strategy that I have been building since 1993. It starts with "what do I know about the problem? Then, "What can I learn from others?"

This strategy, or a version of it, needs to have owners who focus on each of the 90 global issues described in the Periodic Table map shown above. Such groups need to be forming on line, and in each of the major cities of the world, and in each country.

They need to be connected so that people can draw ideas from other sectors, and that people in different sectors can collaborate on building tools that can be used in each place, and in each sector.

This needs to be supported by champions and benefactors from around the world.

As I said at the beginning, this is not going to be easy. Yet, if we don't try, what future can we expect?

"So that's my question: Where are the people, the ones who have the resources and knowledge and networks, who care? Why can't they come together and organize and attack this problem?"

I wish he had been reading this blog for the past 10 years.

I first used the word ENOUGH to create and share actions people could take, in this 2007 article. I've used it often since then.

I created this graphic, and versions of it, in the 1990s, to illustrate the need for leaders from every sector to be strategically, and consistently, involved in solving the problems of poverty, inequality, violence, etc. that plague Chicago and many other cities.

Milwaukee is reaping the harvest of that neglect this week.

In yesterday's article I talked about deeper learning and pointed to this strategy map illustrating a commitment that all those people Rex Huppke is referring to, need to be making and keeping.

You need to open and view all of the links at the bottom of each node to really comprehend what this commitment really involves. That's part of the "deeper learning" that has to be part of a path toward a solution.

This isn't a new problem, as this article from 1996 shows. My ideas aren't new either. I've been using maps since 1993 to focus attention, and resource, on neighborhoods with high poverty and poorly performing schools, with the goal of helping well-organized tutor/mentor programs grow in these areas. They just have not been viewed or embraced by very many leaders in Chicago.

Rex said the solution is "not coming from me. I'm a newspaper columnist".

We'll Rex, and others in media, you can be more of the solution than you have been.

Why not use your column to give recognition to leaders who put the strategy map on their web sites, to demonstrate their own commitment. Then look at this 4-part strategy map (it can be found in the links off the middle section of the strategy map.)

When you give recognition, be specific. Did they do something to improve the information available? Did they use their media, visibility, dollars, to draw more people to the information? Did they appoint someone in their organization to form a learning strategy and lead a company-involvement effort? Do the use maps to show their involvement around places where they do business, or where employees or customers live? Do they provide flexible operating dollars on an on-going basis to multiple organizations. Do they encourage others to duplicate their own efforts?

You can even create maps that show locations of leaders doing good work, or companies, faith groups, hospitals, etc. who adopt and lead this strategy. Host them on your web site, right next to where you keep track of homicides.

Keep doing it, week-after-week. Year-after-year.

Here's a presentation showing how you and others can give recognition to good work, in ways that it is continued and duplicated by others.

Had reporters been consistently highlighting strategic efforts that make mentor-rich learning programs available in high poverty areas and that help kids come to school better prepared to learn, and leave school with adults helping them in to jobs and careers, for the past 30 years, maybe Chicago would be recognized as a model for social justice, opportunity and where to raise a family, rather than for violence and corruption.

This role is not restricted to media. With social media and the internet anyone can look at this information and give recognition to good work being done in different places. Furthermore, they can connect with each other in on-line communities, like the Connected Learning MOOC #clmooc, and share what they are doing while learning new ideas from peers.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Saturday I included this graphic in this article, and pointed to an annotation platform called NowComment, where I highlighted sections of the map, and offered comment to try to help readers build their own understanding.

As my #clmooc friends Terry Elliott and Kevin Hodgson took a look and added their own comments, I responded. Thus, we've started a conversation around this strategy map, using the NowComment annotation platform.

It takes a certain level of commitment, and time, to create these maps, explain them, and read them. They are not 140 character sound bytes. Yet, unless people spend that time, they won't know what is being offered and how the ideas might be used by them in their own efforts to help reduce poverty and inequality in big cities like Chicago.

Just looking at this graphic will probably cause a lot of people to move on to something else. I spent about an hour reading each node and following the lines that helped me move from one point to another. I did not open the links that were provided, and dig even deeper into the ideas, but that would be the next step. I did respond to the invitation to share my own ideas.

When I started using the Internet in 1998 I was excited by the potential for putting complex ideas on a web site that other people, from anywhere in the world, could find and read...at their own pace.

I use concept maps the way this group uses a Prezi, to try to guide people sequentially from one part of the map to another. If you visit this page, you can find a few Prezi presentations done by interns working with me from 2005 to 2014. They work the same way.

In order to teach, and motivate, people to spend time looking at these documents, I think we need to be teaching young people to create them, as part of their own classroom and non-school learning experiences. I've invited others to look at my presentations and create their own interpretations, applying the ideas to their own community, or to the work they are doing in their own tutor/mentor program.

As you do your research, take a look at this article where I introduce systems thinking work being led by Gene Bellinger and apply it to my own efforts. The graphic is a screen shot from one of Gene's videos.

I hope some of you will spend some time looking at these presentations and reading the linked blog articles. Then take me up on that offer as you begin a new school year over the next few weeks.

As your students create new understanding through their own work, let's aggregate that work so others will find it and learn from it.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

In past articles I've shown some of my interactions with the Connected Learning MOOC (#clmooc), which is an online network of educators from the US and the world. I've done so with the goal of creating a similar on-line community of people who are working to reduce poverty and inequality in Chicago and other cities, through strategies that help kids move through school and into jobs and careers. Part of the CLMOOC process involves people from different places creating on-line projects (makes), which then are re-mixed or embedded in blogs and/or social media, so that more people engage with the ideas and each other. Through this process there is a constant introduction of new places and tools where this work can be done. The graphic above was introduced in a blog by Algot Runeman, then remixed by KevinHodgson. I then added my own ideas and re-shared via social media. Over the past few days Kevin introduced a new annotation platform called NowComment, a free site, and posted the graphic here. Terry Elliottthen used his blog to provide some more encouragement to visit and use the NowComment site.

During the Connected Learning MOOC, participants have been encouraged to "make" and share things. Since most participants are educators, much of the sharing and making tests new ways to engage students in their own learning. A MAKE BANK has been created where participants have shared some of their work. I've added some of my graphics. If you compare my graphics to many of the others, you'll see that I'm trying to engage people in thinking about strategies that would make more powerful learning opportunities available to youth in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities. Furthermore, I'm trying to influence people who look at the graphics and presentations I create, so more will adopt the ideas and apply them through their own efforts, in Chicago or in the communities where they live.For that to happen, they need to build a deeper understanding of what I'm talking about. Using annotation tools like NowComment is one path toward that greater understanging. In this particular map I'm showing four steps that are involved in problem solving, that could be duplicated in many places and that require involvement of many people.

I've created maps that show other organizations in Chicago who focus on the well being of young people and on issues such as poverty, inequality, youth and workforce development. This is one. This is another.I'd like to see strategy maps on every web site that I point to with these maps. I'd like to see their own efforts to draw people together on-line, perhaps learning from the sites I point to.By sharing these graphics and pointing to these sites, that's what I hope to influence.I hope you'll take a look. Add your own comment. Make your own version. Share it. Connect with me on other spaces. Help me do this work.

Sunday, August 07, 2016

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago in 1975, and over 35 years developed a deep appreciation for the positive impact such programs have on many of the youth and volunteers who participate.

Coming from a retail advertising background, I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago with a goal of a) building a better understanding of what organizations in Chicago offered tutoring and/or mentoring as part of an on-going strategy; and b) finding ways to build greater public attention that would draw volunteers and donors to all of the programs in the city; and c) would help new programs grow in underserved areas. I have continued to operate the T/MC since 2011 through Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Drawing upon my list of programs, I'm able to look at their web sites, Facebook pages and Twitter posts to see what they do, and try to share that with others. Here's an example:

This shows the Facebook page of four Chicago youth serving organizations, and a graphic that points to my list of more than 100 Chicago area programs who I found on Facebook. I built my Facebook list by looking at my master list of nearly 200 Chicago area youth serving organizations. By clicking into my "pages feed" on Facebook every few days, I'm able to view updates being posted by those who are active in sharing news on Facebook. My Twitter feed offers the same type of updates.

I shared this with a group of educators who I've met via the Connected Learning MOOC (#clmooc), suggesting that they and their students could be looking for youth programs in their own community, and then creating visualizations that drew greater attention to each of them at key times each year.

Youth and volunteer groups in Chicago can do this too, I hope they do. In fact, if 100's of visualizations like this, showing many of the different youth programs operating in the Chicago region, are created over the next six weeks, and throughout the year, more people will take notice, and begin to offer their own support, as volunteer tutors, mentors, organizers, leaders, advocates, etc.

An equally important outcome of such efforts will be that more people will build a deeper understanding of the different types of programs, and the different types of activities, that are taking place around the city, leading to a sharing of ideas that can stimulate borrowing and constant innovation and improvement among all of the youth serving programs.

That was the purpose of creating the library in the first place, and for continuing to sustain it in 2016...even with almost no financial support helping me do this.

I don't expect this type of example from any of the people trying to get elected this fall. I needs to come from us.

Thursday, August 04, 2016

I created this map yesterday, showing people and organizations I'd touched in July, via email, Twitter, Facebook, or by attending events hosted by others.

In a post last week I talked about the "village" it takes to raise a child and asked "who's building the village?" Yesterday's map was intended to show work I do daily to try to help such a village grow in Chicago and other cities by sharing ideas throughout my network.

I shared my map with Terry Elliott, a professor from a university in Western Kentucky, who I've met over past four years through the Connected Learning MOOC (#clmoc). Terry dug deep into my map and then created this graphic, which he shared on his blog.

Then, in my Twitter feed, others from the #clmooc asked "how did I do this?"

I've been trying to think of a way to respond, without turning this blog article into a book long essay.

First, the map was not created based on random contacts, but as a result of intentionally reaching out to people I've added to my web library, Twitter and email lists, over the past 25 years.

In 1993 when I and six other volunteers created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (which I now lead through Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC), it's goal was to "gather and organize all that is known about successful non-school tutoring/mentoring programs and apply that knowledge to expand the availability and enhance the effectiveness of these services to children throughout the Chicago region."This concept map shows the four steps involved in this process. I created this PDF to outline those steps, and I hope one, or more, of my #clmooc friends will use their talents to communicate this in other ways.

I had worked in retail advertising from 1973-1990, for the Montgomery Ward store chain. We spent over $200 million dollars a year, in the 1980s, to draw customers to our 400 stores every week. In order to attract public and private sector support to help needed youth supports, like non-school tutor/mentor programs, to be available and sustained, in every high poverty neighborhoods, a similar on-going campaign is needed.

However, without advertising dollars (or any revenue since 2011), we need to be more creative in how we build public awareness and draw people to the information we're collecting (step 1 on the map), and to the different tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago, where they can offer time, talent or dollars, to make each program world class at what they do to help kids (step 4 on the map).

View this link, to see the four sections of my web library, and this link to see a blog article with a list of pages I point to on a regular basis.

Included in those maps will be a link to a map showing Chicago organizations that act as intermediaries, bringing together others via their own web site, meetings, email, etc. All focus on the well-being of youth. The map is a planning tool. I use it to remind myself of who I need to be reaching out to on a regular basis, to try to become included in their process, while trying to share my experience and library.

The map also shows "empty spaces" where I have limited information, but which needs to be filled. If someone else is collecting such information, I can just point to their web site. We can connect on social media and trying to build visits to such sites.

I keep focusing on "who needs to be involved" and created this talent map to visualize that, and to serve as a worksheet to document who is involved.

For instance, during July, my email newsletter focused on Volunteer Recruitment, because that's what every tutor/mentor program is focusing on during August and September as school is starting. My Tweets, Facebook posts and other touches ask "What's Your Strategy to help mobilize volunteers for programs in your own network?"

The graphic below illustrates how quarterly events, repeated annually, and supported by many different sectors, can increase the amount of dollars and number of volunteers who are becoming involved in tutor/mentor programs over a multi-year period. I started building this event cycle in 1994. It's still a valid strategy, even though I've not hosted a conference since May 2015.

My goal is that more of us are singing the same song, at key times each year, such as volunteer recruitment during Aug/Sept, more people will hear the message and begin to seek out programs in different parts of the city where they can be involved. This message targets people in business, faith groups, entertainment, sports, politics, media and others beyond those who lead schools and non-school youth programs.

So I browse through my concept maps, my Twitter lists, my Facebook page feed, and my Linked in groups, and post a message, "like" a message, and/or reTweet a message. Or I attend a meeting that's being held, such as the weekly Chicago Hack Night event or the quarterly SCY Chicago events. Those are each a "touch".

I'm trying to bring people together into on-going conversations. I keep pointing to cMOOCs because I don't feel any face-to-face planning process will every engage more than a very small percent of ALL people who need to be involved in an on-going planning and action process which I describe in this PDF.

To create the July Influence Map, shown above, I pulled up the Intermediaries map, in my CMAP tools on-line folder and deleted those who I had not had contact with during July, then added new nodes showing some who I did have contact with, based on my calendar notes, email history, etc. I'm sure I omitted many. I included links to their web sites, so that people who view my map are encouraged to go to their web sites and support their efforts.

Last year Terry Elliott took a look at another one of my maps, and added his own interpretation. This one shows how the information I, and others collect, can be a resource for others to learn and borrow from, to support their own efforts to help tutor/mentor programs grow, or solve other complex problems in the world. In January 2016, Terry took a look at this article on my blog, then created a video which he posted on his blog, guiding his visitors through the information I have been collecting.

Last week I posted this article on my blog, showing a Thinglink done by Kevin Hodgson, another #clmooc member, with the invitation that he, Terry and others use their huge creative talents to "make" new interpretations of my maps and visualizations, then share them in their own communities, for the same purpose that I share them in Chicago.

As educators, they can teach youth to do this!

As people respond I'll try to add links to their blogs to this map, which points to people in different places who are sharing these ideas. I'll also share on social media, so more people respond to their presentation of these ideas.

When I wrote the "village" article last week, which I've actually included in blog articles since 2005, I was trying to model work "others should also be doing". Building this village should be work many are trying to do. Mapping where people need help is an action a few people need to do. But once that is done, many can take a role in drawing attention and resources to places on the map where help is needed.

While millions of dollars are being spent on political elections, we can't depend on political leaders to do this work, or build and sustain this village. It's up to each of us.

This intent to document actions toward a goal is not something I've just started doing. I encourage you to visit this OHATS (Organizational History and Tracking System) page and read about the on-line documentation system built in 2000 (which now is not working properly due to lack of tech support).

The four strategies documented in OHATS are the same four shown in the 4-part strategy. If you have pockets of high poverty and disconnected youth and families in your community, I encourage you to spend time building your understanding, then consider adopting this strategy. If you don't have any money, or are trying to build a team, start by building a map showing who you want to connect with, then find ways to "reach out and touch" as many as possible, on an on-going basis.

Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Social media, telephone cameras, instant videos, etc. have combined over the past few years to bring much greater, and horrifying attention to issues of race in America. In many articles, like this one titled,The Sugarcoated Language of White Fragility", from the Huffington Post, “white privilege,” “inclusion” and “unconscious bias” as part of a deeply rooted system of racist oppression", is the focus.

I want to share three images from my library that illustrate what I've been focusing on for the past 20-30 years.

This one focuses on the 12-20 years it takes to help a youth move through school and into a job and career. It emphasizes the work needed on the ground floor, and the sequence of supports that need to be sustained. In education terms, this means "pre school through post high school".

This one asks a question: What are all the things that need to happen for this type of system of support to be available to youth in every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago and other cities?

Now here's the big question. If this system were in place, and succeeding, and, let's say, in 2030, every Black child born in America in 2005 had finished high school, post HS education (college, vocational, etc.) and was starting a job with prospects of further growth in income and opportunities, what would the conversation about "race in America" look like then?

In many articles I've pointed to systems thinking, concept mapping, MOOCs, etc. to share ideas about building conversations and mapping complex problems and solutions. If you looked at the blueprint books for the building shown above, they would probably be several feet thick, showing many pages of detailed work.

In the concept map below I show a birth to work blueprint, but it needs much more detail at each age level. As I talk to others, such as in the Connected Learning MOOC, #CLMOOC, I'm trying to encourage some of them, and their students, to flesh out concept maps like this, with those needed details. And I'm encouraging them to share their map with leaders in their communities, so the strategies are adopted in many cities, not just Chicago.

I've not found a map like this serving as the blueprint a community was using to build and sustain needed supports in every poverty neighborhood, but if you know of one, please share it.

Such a map can only be created, and useful, if part of an on-going strategy, which I describe here.

Until then, my question is just a rhetorical question. We won't know what the conversation about race in America will look like under these circumstances, until we have built a system where all Black kids are moving successfully through school and into jobs.

Such a system would be helping all kids, not just Black kids....or kids living in poverty. I hope.

However, if in 2030 and beyond all Black young people were in jobs, able to afford to live and raise their own kids where ever they want, with many in upper and top management positions in many sectors, what would the conversation about race look like?

If you're thinking about this, I encourage you to write up your thinking on a blog post, then share the web address in the comment section below.

Here's how to use this blog. Each article includes graphics. Click on them to get enlarged versions. Each article has many links (which are often broken on older articles). Open the links to dig deeper in the ideas and strategies I share. On the left side are tags which you can click to find articles that focus on the same topic. Below that are links to other web sites with relevant information. Learn more about me at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/dan-bassill.

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About Me

I combine 40 years of unique experiences into my leadership of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Few people in the US have a similar depth of involvement and experiences.
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